The Greatest News!

The Message we teach is at the centre of the story of God’s word, the Bible. It’s called “The Gospel”; meaning “the good news”, or “the good message”. The Gospel is news; that means that belief in the Gospel is based on true historical events that stand up to the evidence. The key events that happened in history are the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. Examine the evidence yourself – Jesus did die — and He did rise from the grave; we believe this news.

What is the gospel?

Well, it’s a life changing message contained throughout the Bible and it’s all about the Lord Jesus Christ. If God took more than 1000 pages (more than 700,000 words) to unfold this message; you can imagine that it is a very rich and meaningful message that’s meant to change our whole outlook on life. We will feebly attempt to summarise the good news here (but we remind you that the whole of the message is in the whole of the Bible):

***We encourage you to get a Bible and read the verses attached to the key truths of the Gospel below.

1st key TRUTH:

JESUS Christ IS LORD of eVERYTHING AND EVERYONE!

Jesus is the ruler of all things in heaven and earth.

God is the Triune God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus is God’s Son and He is God the Son.

He made all things and is therefore the Creator of all things. This means that He owns everything; and He owns every human being that He created.

We are made for Him – He is the meaning and purpose for our lives and our lives are a gift from Him.

Humans are an incredibly special part of His creation; He made you for a special personal relationship with Him.

2nd key TRUTH:

JESUS CHRIST BECAME A MAN; HE DIED ON THE CROSS, IN OUR PLACE, FOR OUR SINS.

Although Jesus is the Ruler, Owner and Creator of every human; we’ve all decided that we’re not happy to live our lives for Jesus. We’ve each rejected Him in our own way and made our lives about ourselves rather than about Him.

A few people reject Jesus by publicly hating Him; but most of us have rejected Him by ignoring His place in our lives.

When we live for myself; rather than for our Creator; we sin!

When we ignore the purpose of our existence (I exist for my Creator); we sin!

When we disobey what our Creator says; we sin!

All of us are found to be sinners before a perfect, Holy God. Only Jesus lived a sinless life. He is absolutely sinless; we are absolutely sinful. None of us has kept His commands and all of us, at some point, have rejected Jesus as Lord over our lives.

God in his holy perfection must judge sin; He cannot tolerate sin. If He were to overlook the seriousness of our sin and rebellion against Jesus as Lord; He would be unjust.

Everyone has done some “good” things, but no-one has obeyed perfectly in a way that is truly holy. (The Bible teaches that some people do some good, but before God they are evil – see Matthew 7v11) Though we may have done some good things, our good deeds can never cancel out our sins, nor our sinfulness. Like in a court of law, any good we may have done in our lives cannot cancel a reality of law-breaking.

The punishment for sin is death; death means separation. Physical death is when the soul separates from the body. Spiritual death is when the soul is separated from God.

Spiritual death ultimately becomes eternal separation from God in the place prepared to judge Satan and the rebellious angels. This place is called the Lake of fire.

Sin separates us from God; and all of us are sinners — this is a massive problem in our relationship with God.

The really good news is this:Our Creator, Jesus Christ, took the initiative. Because of His astounding love for us; He left the glories of Heaven and became a man. He lived a sinless life. Then He willingly died our death to take our punishment for sin, in our place. Our Creator, Jesus Christ, became our substitute. He took the wrath and punishment that we deserve.

3rd key TRUTH:

JESUS WAS BURIED A DEAD MAN, BUT HE ROSE AGAIN AND HE’S ALIVE FOREVER AS LORD OF ALL!

The resurrection of Jesus means some very important things:

The punishment for sin is finished forever. His death for sin satisfied God’s perfect demands for holiness and justice.

He is alive today and is enthroned in Heaven.

His resurrection means that we can now be right with God.

The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus were all promised by God in the Old Testament hundreds of years earlier – predicted by the prophets.

There were many eyewitnesses of the resurrection and they wrote it down for us so we could have confident faith that He is risen.

Jesus’ resurrection gives us new life – we can be “new creations”; people no longer living for self, but living for Jesus.

Jesus resurrection means that all who believe in Him are promised resurrection from the dead even though they die physically.

His resurrection from the dead guarantees that all who believe in Jesus can receive eternal life from God as a free, unearned gift – this is called Grace!

When Jesus rose again and ascended to Heaven; He then sent His Holy Spirit to live in us and change us. Although we are still sinful and far from perfect; we now have a new life lived by the power of the Holy Spirit who steadily makes us more and more like Jesus.

Jesus will return one day as the conquering King of all kings and Lord of all lords. Then, He will judge all who are living and those who have died. We will all be held accountable to Him.

We can now be forgiven (which means that our sins are taken away and no longer count against us).

BUT, HOW CAN WE BE FORGIVEN?

A – Admitthat I am a sinner and that I don’t deserve God’s help. Ask God to forgive my sins. (simply talk to Him now; He hears you) 1st John 1v8,9

B – Believe that Jesus died in my place and rose from the dead to give me new life. Romans 10v9,10

C – Commit my life into God’s hands. Jesus is now to be Lord over me and He is to take charge of my new way of life. Romans 10v9,10

ABC – This is called Repentance – a change of mind – a change of heart – a change of direction in life. I no longer live for myself; but I now live for Jesus. My life is restored to its original purpose – I’m living for my Creator. Although I’m still a sinner, I’m now a forgiven sinner and my heart and mind have a whole new direction and purpose!

Some key points that are important to understand about how Jesus rescues us from our sin:

This rescue is only by Grace – Grace means that the forgiveness of sins and eternal life are the gift of God. Grace means that all this is ill-deserved and unearned. We can do nothing to earn it – Through His great love, Jesus has rescued us from eternal judgement. Ephesians 2v8&9

This rescue only comes through faith– Faith means quite simply: to depend, to trust, to believe. Faith means that I don’t work for it or “try to be good enough”. Faith means that I believe God’s promise that I can be forgiven and right with God through Jesus’ death and resurrection. I depend completely on what Jesus has done – I reject my own shabby efforts to be good enough. Romans 5v1; Romans 4v4&5

This rescue is NOT because of our own good deeds or goodness; Good deeds (works) are not the Cause of our rescue; rather, good works are the Consequence of being rescued by Jesus. When Jesus rescues us; He changes us so that we begin to live more like Him. Titus 3v5-7; Ephesians 2v10

Do you have questions about Jesus? Email us and we’ll do our best to help you find answers.

Some people find it easier to understand things with illustrations; For another summary of the good news; Click Here

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